All eyes on Biden to slow Republican advance

Technicians put finishing touches on the stage at Centre College ahead of the vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan in Danville, Kentucky.
Photo: Reuters

by
Peter Foster

Often in US election cycles, the vice-presidential debate is considered an entertaining but largely inconsequential diversion: politicos might be curious to see how the understudies perform, but the voting public really has eyes only for the two principals.

Not this time. After
Barack Obama
appeared to sleep-walk through the first presidential debate in Denver, precipitating a revival for
Mitt Romney
in the polls, the heat is now on
Joe Biden
to help put a stop to the Romney roll.

It is an unaccustomed role for Mr Biden, a loquacious but notoriously unreliable politician who over the past four years has played fool to Obama’s Lear, speaking truth unto power, keeping the Obama White House “intellectually honest", as one staffer recently portrayed it.

But for 90 minutes in Danville, Kentucky, the affable sidekick - who accepts his secondary role even as he reportedly harbours presidential ambitions of his own - will hold centre-stage. A weak performance from Mr Biden risks reinforcing the impression that the force is no longer with Mr Obama.

A strong showing will give Mr Obama’s strategists in Chicago a much-needed opportunity to change the subject away from the debacle in Denver.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

In many respects, Mr Biden will still be trying to clear up the mess left behind by his boss, who so abjectly failed to challenge a repackaged, moderate Mr Romney - balanced on taxation, keen on education and accepting, all of a sudden, the need for financial regulation. In Paul Ryan, a fiscal and social hardliner who the New York Times recently rated as the most conservative Republican vice-presidential candidate since 1900, Mr Biden has a much clearer target to aim for.

He can point to Mr Ryan’s previous budget proposals and accuse him of seeking to privatise the cherished Medicare entitlement for pensioners, while his spending plans would see education budgets slashed by a third.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Mr Ryan, a six-term Congressman from Wisconsin who has never appeared on a stage of this size, will submit to the script that presents him as gimlet-eyed, budget-cutter against Mr Biden’s straight-shooting, man-of-the-people.

Four years ago, Mr Biden convincingly overcame Sarah Palin’s unvarnished, soccer mom charms, without falling into the trap of patronising a woman candidate many years his junior. He will need similar sound touch this time if he is to prevail.

Mr Ryan is a trickier adversary than he looks: back in August he was touted as providing a much-needed policy backbone for the Romney campaign, but after a brief stint plugging his Medicare scheme (and scaring voters) was hastily retired to the campaign fringes. Camouflaged in a wood-cutter’s shirt, Mr Ryan has, of late, played the open-faced family man, pepping up the Republican faithful, sharing his fondness for hunting - his secret service codename is “Bowhunter" - and his fatherly understanding of the cares of ordinary American families.

This Ryan, like the remade Mr Romney, is a far more elusive quarry for Mr Biden, and he will be hoping that the vice-president, with his tendency to let his mouth run away with him, gives chase too hard and trips himself up in the process.